


bring your bae to work day

by bestthreemonths



Category: Her Name in the Sky - Kelly Quindlen
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 01:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8382079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestthreemonths/pseuds/bestthreemonths
Summary: Baker always knows when Hannah wants something, but there's very little she wouldn't do for her.





	

**Author's Note:**

> You know, I really did try to come up with a Good title for this, but I used up all my creative energy on this, so y'all are stuck with the working title in my Google Drive.

Baker knows Hannah wants something as soon as she gets home from work to the smell of her favorite Buttercream candle from Yankee Candle. Hannah always whines when Baker lights it because she says it smells like a cake and it’s not fair for Baker to burn it with no intention of actually making a cake. (Most of these arguments end with a cake, a kiss, and two happy campers.)

 

“Han?” Baker calls, setting her bag down cautiously on the suspiciously clean bar in the kitchen.

 

“In the dining room!” Hannah calls back. That, too, is suspicious. They only use the dining room for special occasions. In fact, Baker’s pretty sure they’ve had sex on the dining room table more often than they’ve eaten on it, not that she’d ever share that with any of their dinner guests.

 

When Baker walks into the dining room, she folds her arms across her chest. “Okay, what the hell do you want?”

 

The lights are dim, and Hannah is just finishing setting the candlelit table. She even brought out a tablecloth.

 

“I want to wine and dine my beautiful girlfriend!” Hannah insists, meeting Baker with a kiss. “Red or white?”

 

“You’re up to something.”

 

“Red it is,” Hannah says, pouring Baker a glass. “You told me this week at work was crazy for you, so I wanted to do something special.”

 

Baker softens, taking the wine from Hannah. “You're the best,” she says. “Cheers.” She lifts her glass and waits for Hannah to pour her own.

 

Hannah leans in for another kiss as she clinks her glass against Baker’s. “Love you,” she murmurs as the timer from the kitchen dings. “Sit down, I'll be back.”

 

They catch up over a casserole dish Baker knows Hannah must have called her mom for, chatting mindlessly about work and life and Joanie’s latest fling. Baker’s on her very last green bean by the time the other shoe drops.

 

“So you know how I was telling you about the project I was having my ninth graders do?” Hannah asks.

 

Of course Baker knows, it’s practically all Hannah has talked about for the past month. It’s still the first semester of the school year, but she’s preparing them for their end-of-year assessment, which is a research paper on the topic of their choosing. One of the assignments she’s been most excited about is one she came up with all on her own, where she’d invite someone to come to class and let the kids interview them about their job.

 

“Mhm,” Baker nods, taking a sip of wine. “Are they excited about it?”

 

“They were,” Hannah says. “But Craig had to back out at the last minute.”

 

“Oh, Han, I’m sorry,” Baker sighs. Hannah had been so excited that her dad’s golfing buddy, a police officer, had agreed to the task, certain that he’d have plenty of fodder for all the kids. He had even warned her that sometimes students get so excited after a couple stories that it could likely take the entire class period, which Hannah was more than okay with, considering it would let her get some extra work done while the kids were entertained.

 

“Yeah,” Hannah says wistfully. “And it’s too late to get any of my back-ups. They’re all booked already.”

 

“What a bummer,” Baker says, mulling it over. “Maybe you can switch around your lesson plans and have him come in next week?”

 

“Or maybe I could get someone else…”

 

“I thought you said everyone was booked?”

 

“Well, yeah,” Hannah says. “Everyone I had as back-up.”

 

Baker stares at her, confused, before it finally registers. “Han, no.”

 

“Baker,” Hannah whines. “Please. Please please please. I’m desperate.”

 

“This has been the longest week of my life, and tomorrow is the first day I'll get to sleep past the crack of dawn in weeks,” Baker groans. She already knows how this is going to end.

 

“I promise I'll make it worth your while,” Hannah tries. 

 

“Oh really?”

 

“I mean I already made this whole dinner for you and--”

 

“Ew!” Baker exclaims, pushing her plate away. “I knew it! I knew you were sucking up to get something.”

 

“It was good, though, right?”

 

“Yeah,” Baker admits. “I still hate you.”

 

“Name your price,” Hannah says. “You know I wouldn’t be asking if I had any other choice. Whatever you want, I’ll do it.”

 

Baker thinks for a moment. “Well, I’d say clean the house, but you seem to have done a pretty good job of that already.”

 

“You could lick the bathroom floor.”

 

“I think I’ll pass,” Baker laughs. “Okay, I have three demands.”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

“You give Charlie a bath this weekend,” Baker starts. “You take me to brunch on Saturday, and you take me to bed right now.”

 

Hannah narrows her eyes. “Is this a trick?”

 

“No, candlelit dinners and you groveling are numbers 3 and 7 in my top ten list of turn-ons.”

 

“In that order?”

 

Baker thinks about it for a second, tapping her chin. “Nope. You groveling is way hotter.”

 

~

 

Even though it’s the crack of dawn, Baker wakes up in a great mood. By the time she has coffee in her system, she’s actually kind of excited about going to school with Hannah. She doesn’t have to be at work till after Hannah’s lunch period, so they agree to carpool.

 

Being on a high school campus with Hannah brings back a flurry of memories for Baker. She’s been to Hannah’s classroom a number of times, to help her move in and out every school year and sometimes just to bring her lunch or a cupcake from the bakery next door to the veterinary clinic, but she’s never come to school early in the morning when all the students are arriving or walked through the halls next to Hannah, hands brushing clandestinely.

 

“Ever thought about having sex on this desk?” Baker muses as Hannah checks her email. Hannah has a planning period first thing in the morning, which she loves because she gets to drink her coffee and check her email and get situated for the day before being bombarded by rowdy high schoolers.

 

Hannah nearly chokes on her coffee. “Um, no,” she says. “If I were thinking about sex with you during class, I’d never get anything done.”

 

Baker shrugs. “I assume you’re thinking about sex with me at all hours of the day.”

 

“That was mostly college,” Hannah laughs. “Now that I can get it whenever I want, I don’t have to fantasize.”

 

Baker scowls. “Mean,” she says. “Watch, I’m going to hold out on you just to see how long you last.”

 

“Please don’t,” Hannah murmurs, leaning across her desk for a kiss, which Baker reluctantly grants her (as if she has a choice).

 

A throat clears from the doorway, and Hannah pulls away, turning bright red.

 

“Sorry, Ms. Eaden,” a girl says. She tugs on the straps of her backpack nervously, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and fidgeting with a thin stack of papers in her hand. “I just—you said yesterday I could come by to talk about my personal statement?”

 

“I’m so sorry, Paige,” Hannah says. “Of course, come in. This is Baker, my…”

  
There’s no mistaking who Baker is to her, especially when Paige had walked in on them kissing, but it still feels somehow wrong to say to a student. The embarrassment Hannah had at being interrupted turns to embarrassment at not being able to say “girlfriend” in front of Baker.

 

“Nice to meet you,” Baker says warmly, saving Hannah from an awkward pause. “Don’t let me get in your way, I’m just here to distract Hannah while she should be working.”

 

“Nice to meet you, too,” Paige says, pulling up another chair to Hannah’s desk.

 

Baker busies herself with a few index cards she swipes from Hannah’s drawer, pretending to jot down notes about what she wants to say to Hannah’s class about her job while really listening to Hannah talk to this girl about college and what she wants to portray about herself to the admissions people at LSU.

 

“I went to LSU!” Baker says brightly, and Hannah smirks. “Sorry, sorry.”

 

“That’s okay,” Hannah laughs. “Baker’s really smart. She went to their veterinary school as well.”

 

“If I get in, you’ll have to tell me everything,” Paige suggests.   
  


“When you get in,” Hannah corrects.

 

Paige blushes, but Baker bites her lip to stop the grin from spreading across her face. She knows how powerful it is to know Hannah believes in you, and while part of her feels envious of all Hannah’s students for getting so much time and attention from her, she’s proud.

 

The bell rings to signal class change, and Paige thanks Hannah profusely for all her help before leaving. As soon as the door closes behind her, Baker kisses Hannah—quickly, this time, to avoid another student walking in on them—and grins.

 

“You’re Ms. Carpenter,” she says.

 

Hannah blushes, but she can’t stop herself from beaming. “You think?”

 

Baker just nods, a proud smile on her face. She crosses her legs and sits up in her chair, watching Hannah as she strides to the front of the class to erase the whiteboard before the students get in. Baker smirks when she sees Hannah carefully avoid erasing the small “BH <3 HE” in the bottom right corner that Baker had written when they first got in.

 

“Hey everyone!” Hannah announces when they get in. “Happy Friday. First one to tell me a plan for this weekend that’s school-appropriate gets 5 participation points… go!” The class is silent. “Not all at once,” she teases. “Geez, you’re all going to have a better weekend than I am, I guess.”

 

Baker winks, and Hannah shakes her head.

 

“I’m going to read all the pages you assign us, Ms. E,” one boy near the back of the classroom says smoothly. He reminds Baker of Clay, all suave and confident, but still for some reason sucking up to his teacher. It’s probably because she’s hot, Baker realizes, not sure how she feels about that fact in a classroom setting.

 

“Good answer,” Hannah says. “Total lie, but good answer.”

 

The boy smiles and shrugs, and Hannah turns around to write their assignment on the board, along with Baker’s name. Baker’s eyes could burn through every boy’s skin because she sees exactly what they see when she stands on her tiptoes to reach the top of the board and her respectable just-under-knee-length dress rises up an inch.

 

“I promised you all a Friday treat, and I’m excited that I can deliver,” Hannah says. Most of the kids start to turn toward Baker, who they noticed when they walked in. “I have a special guest. She’s going to tell you a little bit about her job, and then you can all interview her about it. You can each ask as many questions as you want, but each person needs to ask at least one question. Keep in mind you’re going to use her answers to write a profile of her, just like the ones we’ve been reading all this week. You’re going to be graded on a few things, but one of the biggest ones is creativity. I don’t want everyone’s papers to be the same thing about her name and age and education and favorite part of her job. Make it fun for me, I’m a grumpy grader when I’m bored.”

 

Everyone seems excited, and Baker can’t believe they all already have notebook paper and pencils at the ready.

 

“Our guest is _Dr._ Baker Hadley,” Hannah says, smiling toward Baker, who rolls her eyes at the way she stresses the doctor part. “She’s a veterinarian who’s taking time out of her incredibly busy day to hang out with us. Please be kind and respectful to Dr. Hadley.”

 

Baker stands up and walks toward the front of the classroom. She hears the students whispering and definitely picks up on the words “girlfriend,” “picture,” and “desk.” She knows there are a few pictures of her on Hannah’s desk, some group pictures with the Six Pack, but some of just the two of them. She’s surprised they’d pick up on that, but Hannah is teaching them how to be curious, so it must be paying off.

 

“Thanks, Ms. Eaden,” Baker says, sitting in the chair Hannah left for her at the front. “Hey guys, no need for formalities, you can call me Baker. I’ll give you the basic rundown, and then you can ask me whatever. Nothing’s off limits.” She catches a famous Hannah Eaden eyebrow raise from the back of the room. “Okay, some limits. Use your brains.”

 

She spends the next hour regaling the class with some of her favorite and most dramatic veterinary stories, almost living for the way some of the guys cringe when she mentions certain procedures.

 

“Where do you see yourself in the next five years?” A boy, who she’s learned is named Lucas, asks.

 

Baker racks her brain. She knows he means professionally, but she can’t think of any significant work changes she could make in that time. “I’m still kind of new at work, so I’d really love to mentor someone else,” she says. “I definitely want to get to a point where I can work more normal hours instead of crazy emergency shifts.”

 

“What would that change?” he asks. Baker is impressed.

  
“I’d probably be a lot saner and less crabby at home,” Baker laughs. “But hopefully in five years’ time I’ll be married and maybe have started a family. I’d like to be there for my family and get to help my kids with their homework after school and play outside till it gets dark and do fun weekend activities together.”

 

Hannah smiles from her place at her desk, and Baker looks away quickly, swallowing an embarrassingly adoring grin.

 

“Are you in a relationship now?” a girl asks.

 

“Ashton, that’s personal!” Hannah admonishes.

 

“She brought it up!” Ashton says, defending herself.

 

“That’s okay, I don’t mind,” Baker says. “I am. And my work definitely does get in the way sometimes, but my partner is incredibly supportive. If she still puts up with me in five years, that’ll be a success in and of itself.”

 

“So you want to marry her?” the girl next to Ashton asks, smirking conspiratorially.

 

“For sure,” Baker says, loving the way she can see Hannah turn redder and redder out of the corner of her eye. “Marry her, have babies with her, grow old with her, the whole thing.”

 

“I don’t see how this is helping any of you figure out a good story to tell in your profile,” Hannah grumbles, hiding her face by pretending to be focused on the stack of papers in front of her to grade.

 

“Ignore her,” Baker says, mouthing a quick ‘sorry’ when Hannah glares at her. “I’ll answer anything you’ve got for me, but I promise there are more interesting things than my love life.”

 

She somehow manages to artfully evade the question of who her mystery lover is for the rest of the period (though the whole class seems pretty sure they’ve got it figured out anyway), and the next class doesn’t dig quite so deep, but Baker can tell Hannah is still a little flustered by the time the bell rings for her lunch period and they walk out to Hannah’s car.

 

“Sorry about that,” Baker says when she’s safely buckled into Hannah’s passenger seat. “I should have redirected them, I just wasn’t exactly prepared for that.”

 

“No, I know,” Hannah says, looking everywhere but at Baker as she pulls out of the parking lot. “It’s okay. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone uses that stuff, though. There are a few really creative kids in that class, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”

 

“I want to read them,” Baker says. “If they let you share.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Hannah agrees, nodding. “For sure.”

 

Baker takes Hannah’s hand from the gear shift and squeezes it, bringing it to her lips. “Thanks for having me today.”

 

“Thank you for coming,” Hannah says, finally making eye contact. “You really saved me.”

 

“Of course.”

 

They drive in silence for a bit, Baker’s thumb rubbing the back of Hannah’s hand.

 

“Did you mean all that?” Hannah asks softly when they get to the last stoplight before Baker’s office. “About getting married and having kids in the next few years?”

 

“Of course I did, silly,” Baker laughs, running a hand through Hannah’s hair. “Why, did it freak you out?”

 

“No,” Hannah says, shaking her head adamantly. “I just—we’re really growing up, aren’t we?”

 

“Ready or not,” Baker laughs. 

 

“I’m ready,” Hannah promises, squeezing Baker’s knee softly. “I’ve always wanted to marry a doctor.”

 

“Dr. and Mrs. Hadley?” Baker laughs.

 

Hannah scrunches her nose. “I don’t know how I feel about Hannah Hadley.”

 

“I think it’s cute!” Baker insists.

 

“We have time,” Hannah concedes, figuring there are better times and places to discuss who’s taking the other’s last name… like not in the car and after they’re actually engaged.

 

“Too bad your students put us on a time crunch,” Baker retorts, sticking her tongue out between her teeth. She wiggles her left hand beneath Hannah’s chin. “Tick tock, Ms. Eaden.”


End file.
